Jun 7, 2008

buzz kill

its a total buzz kill to be all excited about a race,and travel sort of far for said raceand pull into town the night before and hear all the tornado sirens going off.and to hear the rain and watch freakishly scary lightning light up the sky all nightand to wake up race morning to morerain and cold and lightning.but still. we were there to race.we travelled far. we bought the gas.we were ready.we even got special permisson from race director to park the team bus (a.k.a marathon mobile)in the high school parking lot (a.k.a the race start/finish)we fueled, we hydratedwe skipped wine at the big dinner the night before.

and sure, when we woke up this morning it may have been daunting to see the lightning flash and the rain pour down from our relatively dry spot under the airstream awning while we warmed up on the trainers. but the numbers were pinned on our jerseys. we're racing, right? ok it was slightly nerve wracking to think of racing in that weather, but my race didn't start until later in the morning, i thought at least i might be in the clear. my husband and other teammate who was bunking with us weren't going to be so lucky. i just kept thinking about a running race. i mean, if it rains on marathon morning, the show must go on, yes? you just do what you came there to do. while we may not have really wanted to ride in the deplorable conditions, we were forging ahead. it was race day after all.

then we heard the start was delayed 15 minutes.then it was delayed 30 minutes.and then,$150 worth of gas$60 worth of race fees$50 worth of dinner laterthe raceis cancelled.wha????

kits off, crank the tunes, make a new pot of coffee, bitch & moan for a bit - okay, longer than a bit - get the bikes back on the rack & head home.disappointed, mad and with a whole lot of unused race energy.on the drive home, we call all the other team members who were going to race and plan to get together and have a good hard, our-race-totally-got-cancelled-ride when everyone gets back into town.but the long hot ride home zapped some of our energy.fourteen measly miles into the ride, i was nano-seconds away from throwing up,and i could feel the vice-grip of a headache start to take hold.i had already been depleted my water bottles.the damn weather was still totally killing my buzz -it wasn't lightning and rain this time, buttheoppressiveheat.it just took whatever was left of my istillsototallywanttogetahardrideintoday buzz,and squashed it into the ground.and then i think it spit on it.or maybe i threw up.

i'm not ready for this heat.and being at a race, ready & raring to go -and it gets cancelled?total buzz kill.

robin, you're right ... it totally sucked, but i don't know how the race could have gone on - there was lightning everywhere, and apparently, the two storms that had just blown through had nothing on the one that we was headed right for the race course basically. we drove home in it & it was downright frightening! we barely made it back into town, they closed the highway due to flooding just after we exited. and yes, this heat is a doozy - there will be much complaining about it here at see zanne run or whatever i am calling the blog these days!!

Unfortunately, it does happen from time to time. The weather this weekend was horrible all over, so I'm surprised more races here weren't cancelled. I have done tris in pouring, pouring rain. Raining when you're driving there, raining while you're waiting for the race to start, raining during the race, and rain all the way home and for hours after. But no lightning. I have driven across state to do a tri only to have it turn into a du because of water quality. But what can you do? Its a gamble every time you pay your registration fee. How far did you guys go?

That's a little bit how I felt about our camping trip this weekend. We got all packed up, went out there, drank a few beers and then called it a night after on again, off again rain and the knowledge that the storm that started at 10 would go for hours. And hours. And then we came home early the next day. Oh well.

The storms this weekend were crazy, it's probably so much better that they canceled it. But it sucks, too.

Nothing worse than being amped up for a race and getting canceled. You missed some lovely suffering at the ms150, humidity and cheryl playing Mariah carey?!??!?!?!Thank god its a great cause!!Good luck this wknd at RRG! You know I'm not allowed that close to an ice cream truck anymore.